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PR Articles ZeroBrokerFees.com wins naming rights for the Fleet Center Saturday Feb 26th
Boston
Site to Take It One Name at a Time Published: February 11, 2005
Celtics fans, Bostonians, companies and anyone else have the opportunity to own, for a day, the naming rights for the building currently known as the Fleet Center, where the Celtics play their home games. All they have to do is be the high bidder in an auction on eBay that began yesterday. The name is available because Fleet Bank was acquired by Bank of America, which decided not to pay for the right to have the building named for the company. Fleet Center executives are trying to sell the naming rights to another corporation, but that is expected to take several months. In the meantime, the building's naming rights will be sold for Feb. 16-28. to the highest bidder for each day. The proceeds will be donated to charity. "We have begun our search to replace our previous naming rights affiliation with Fleet and are confident that we will find the right long-term marketing and community partner in the near future," Richard Krezwick, the arena president and chief executive, said in a statement. "However, in the meantime, we thought we'd offer up a few once-in-a-lifetime branding opportunities to a wider audience and generate needed funding for some worthy Boston charities in the process." Jim Delaney, the Fleet Center's director of marketing and public relations, said arena officials initially thought the bidding for the name would be good for individuals or small businesses "who would be looking to have some fun with it." "But we never expected the level of response we've seen today," Delaney said. "The last few hours have been crazy." Ed Williams, of Beverly, Mass., the chief executive of ZeroBrokerFees.com, had bid $1,500 by late yesterday afternoon and said he was willing to go to $20,000 to have the arena named after his company, a Web site that allows individuals to sell houses without paying real estate agent fees. "We're launching March 31 with this new division and I think this is a wonderful opportunity to put the power of such a huge event into the hands of a small guy like me," Williams said in a telephone interview. "This never happens in a lifetime. Now it's available for anyone to buy on eBay. I'm sure, though, that the bidding is going to go very high." The bidding for 7 of the 13 dates will end Tuesday. As of 7 p.m. yesterday, the naming rights for Wednesday, when the Celtics will play the Memphis Grizzlies, were going for $10,305.78, the highest of 48 bids. The high bids on the other nights ranged from $2,501 to $1,000. The minimum bid is $25. The Fleet Center signs overlooking Route 93 and Causeway Street will not be changed. But winning bidders on eBay will get their names on the arena scoreboard, as well as other benefits including four tickets to the game or show being held in the building that day. Names will be approved as long as they do not involve profane words or insensitive remarks. The building could be named after the winning bidder, for example, or the winner's children, company or even a pet. The Fleet Center will start using a different name today. The first five days of naming rights were offered privately. The arena will be named after a television station tonight, then tomorrow the winner of an employee raffle will have the honor. The next three nights were sold privately to companies. Dan Migala, who publishes the sports marketing periodical Migala Report, bought the naming rights for his publication for Sunday, paying $500. "Five hundred dollars is the deal of a lifetime," he said. "We are getting more than our money's worth in terms of exposure and the money is going to charity." Migala said he thought the bidding would accelerate toward the end of the auction. He estimated that one day's naming rights were worth $12,000 to $15,000. "The ego factor of being able to have a frame on your wall saying that for a day I owned the place is quite compelling," he said.
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From the Boston Globe by SASHA TALCOTT Bids for naming
rights soar on 1st day If they keep this up, executives at Boston's FleetCenter won't need to find a new corporate sponsor to ante up wads of cash to rename the building. Some bidders vowed to go higher. "I'm willing to go up to $20,000," said Ed Williams, who wants to rename the building The ZeroBrokerFee Center, after his real estate website, ZeroBrokerFees.com. A Lowell engineering consulting company bid $3,400 on an even more tongue-twisting name: AtroxTechnologiesCenter. "Where else can I pull a publicity stunt like that?" asked the firm's chief executive, Tim Looney. SASHA TALCOTT © Copyright 2005 Globe Newspaper Company
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Delaware North Companies, owner and operator of Boston's FleetCenter, announced
today that they have reached agreement with ZeroBrokerFees.com on a naming
rights deal to re-name the world-class sports and entertainment arena the
'ZeroBrokerFees.comCenter'. The deal will both go into effect and expire
on Saturday, February 26, 2005.| Terms
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